Udupi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday assailed the Congress government in Karnataka for initiating the culture of "ease of doing murder", as he launched the second leg of his campaign blitz in the state for the Assembly elections.
Modi claimed over two dozen BJP workers were killed under the Congress government in Karnataka in political violence. "What was their crime? It was that they were opposed to your views, they raised their voice for the people of Karnataka,” he said during an election rally in Udupi, his second in the day.
"We want to encourage the ease of doing business, they (the Congress) have initiated the culture of ease of doing murder," the PM said.
He asked the audience whether or not the Congress should not be banished from Karnataka and the country, and should not the mentality of political violence end. A lustily cheering audience responded with shouts of "yes, yes".
The Prime Minister’s claims was met by a quick retort from CM Siddaramaiah, who tweeted to challenge the PM to a debate on crime.
“Crime is not increasing in Karnataka. PM repeats the lie of increasing crime rate for political purposes. I challenge him for an open debate on a single platform on crime & law & order situation in Karnataka vis-a-viz BJP ruled states,” he wrote.
Modi also referred to Mahatma Gandhi's insistence on disbanding the Congress after independence, and said with the party facing defeat after defeat in the last four years, the Father of the Nation's "last dream" was about to materialize with its decimation in the Karnataka polls.
He predicted that the BJP would storm to power in the state. “It is not a BJP wave in Karnataka but it is a BJP storm,” he said.
Speaking about the pioneering work done in the banking sector in Udupi, Modi said despite the nationalisation of banks, the poor remained out of the banking system until his government started helming the country.
"There was a time when the poor had no bank accounts, they could not even think of going to a bank. They were out of the economic mainstream, out of the banking system. We started the Jan Dhan scheme for them. The earlier Congress governments allowed a handful of people to loot banks, but denied loans to the youth, farmer, the poor," he said.
Prefacing his speech with a reference to the BJP and its forerunner Jana Sangh's connect with Udupi, he recalled how people of the city voted for the nominees of the saffron party 40 years ago when their flags hardly fluttered anywhere else.
Alleging that the state government was patronising the sand mafia, Modi said that prompted the high court to pass strictures against it. "Should not a government that loots even sand be eased out?" he asked.
Modi resumed his campaign in Karnataka after a long break - the last rally he addressed was in February - as he sought to give a big push to the BJP's efforts to return to power in the state for a second time unseating the Congress. He is slated to address 15 rallies over the next few days.
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